Market Research Tools and Solutions

Over the last 12 months, SBI has monitored the emerging Sales and Marketing revenue trends of B2B companies. We have compared these trends with those we have observed over the nine years that we have been conducting such research.

Using 14 data collection techniques across four lenses of research (customer, corporate, field, and market), SBI has developed a set of unique tools and solutions to help you Make Your Number.

Thanks to the Internet and, in the last few years, mobility, buyers control more of their journey before engaging a company’s sales team. And even though the new buyer’s journey is now a commonly held belief, surprisingly few B2B sales and marketing teams have changed their approaches. This tool assesses how companies have aligned themselves with their buyers.

All of the evidence points to the fact that companies can no longer afford to launch individual initiatives, hoping they will somehow align themselves. The only way to systematize revenue growth is through strategic alignment. And it’s the one thing that the top 10% of teams say they are doing differently than in previous years that is directly contributing to their outstanding performance. This tool assesses how companies use both strategy and tactics to make their number.

Clearly, there is an urgent need for strategic alignment. To facilitate this, SBI has developed a Revenue Growth Maturity Model. Used by organizations to assess how they rank in terms of strategic alignment today, it also helps them pinpoint where they would like to be assessed in the future. This tool assesses how well a company is strategically aligned internally and with the external market.

The first of three reasons you should care about your Revenue Growth Maturity Model Level is the impact on Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). The reductions in Customer Acquisition Cost are significant. Given that 35% of revenue is allocated across product, marketing and sales, a reduction in CAC of 30% drops more than 10% to the bottom line. This tool is used to assess your current CAC.

The second of three reasons you should care about your Revenue Growth Maturity Model Level is the impact on Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV). SBI found best-in-class teams operating at Level 5 have a 26% higher CLTV vs. Level 1–4 companies with misaligned strategies. This directly impacts top-line revenue for years to come. Every subsequent year it gets easier to attain the organization’s revenue growth objective. This tool is used to assess your current CLTV.

The third of three reasons you should care about your Revenue Growth Maturity Model Level is to understand the probability that you will succeed in attaining your revenue growth objective. In 2014, an impressive 85% of companies achieved their revenue objective, so it was clearly a good year for overall top-line performance. But those companies with aligned strategies had a 96% chance of exceeding top-line performance, while those with misaligned strategies had an 84% chance of success. This tool compares your probability of success of making your number based on your strategic alignment.

The Corporate Strategy is where the direction for the company is defined. It needs to pull insights from the external marketplace and use those to make choices such as “why do we exist,” “which markets will we choose to compete in,” and “what strategic advantages will we develop.” One of the main goals of the Corporate Strategy is to enable the functional strategies to be developed. This tool assesses the strength of your Corporate Strategy and how well it is aligned with your other internal strategies.

As the name would suggest, Product Strategy defines the direction for the company’s products. It pulls insights from the external marketplace and it is aligned with the Corporate Strategy. It requires choices: which products to invest in and which ones to forgo. And one of its main goals is to set the Marketing and Sales Strategies up for success. This tool assesses the strength of your Product Strategy and how well it is aligned with your other internal strategies.

Your company’s Marketing department needs direction. This comes from the Marketing Strategy. It must build on the insights from the external marketplace and remain aligned with the Corporate Strategy, while also addressing how marketing will build demand for the company’s products. It requires choices on which market channels to invest in and which ones to forgo. One of the main goals of the Marketing Strategy is to set the Sales Strategy up for success. Best-in-class marketing leaders can produce a copy of their well-articulated Marketing Strategy. This tool assesses the strength of your Marketing Strategy and how well it is aligned with your other internal strategies.

Sales Strategy is where the direction for the company’s Sales department is determined. It needs to build on the insights from the external marketplace and remain aligned with the Corporate Strategy while also addressing how Sales will achieve the revenue objective with support from the Product and Marketing teams. It requires choices on which sales programs to invest in and which ones to forgo. This tool assesses the strength of your Sales Strategy and how well it is aligned with your other internal strategies.

Clint Poole, the CMO and SVP of Marketing for Lionbridge, is here to share how he teamed with his peers in product and sales to launch a game-changing new product offering with a high degree of speed to market and success.

Joining us for today’s show is Christopher Bray, the Senior Vice President, and GM for Cylance. Christopher has successfully launched products across multiple organizations and is the top revenue leader to speak on the topic of Go-to-Market new product launch.